Box Office: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Breaks Record With $238 Million Debut

Even if the preliminary numbers for this weekend are off by a considerable margin, The Force Awakens is still on track to become the biggest opening weekend in the history of cinema. The film, directed by J.J. Abrams, grossed $238 million in North America alone. Combined with its international totals, the film has grossed $517 million worldwide in just this weekend alone. This obliterates the former domestic opening record held by Jurassic World, which debuted to $208.8 million back in June. However, Jurassic World still holds the worldwide opening record with a massive $524.9 million, due in large part to its same-day opening in China.

The Force Awakens doesn’t debut in China until January 9, so Star Wars has the potential to actually make more money than Jurassic World before it’s all said and done, since it’s already doing huge business without China. That said, as Stephen Colbert explained on The Late Show, China has never really been that crazy about the Star Wars franchise, due to the original movies coming out at a time when western media was largely suppressed. So it’s uncertain just how much money the franchise stands to make. But considering China is the world’s second-largest movie audience, even a modest number would mean big business for the galaxy far, far away.

Credit: Disney

We’ll be back tomorrow with the final numbers for the weekend gross. But for right now, it’s looking like Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be the all-time opening weekend champ.